Mostly. We use organic or wildcrafted ingredients whenever possible and we estimate that our aromatherapy blends are 97.5% organic. The perfume blends range from 76.5% to 92.5% organic. The teas are 100% organic. All ingredients are from sustainable sources.
Sourcing all-organic essential oils and extracts can be difficult due to cost, availability and quality. For example, if a conventional rose otto is $86 per ounce, its organic counterpart is more likely to be $530 per ounce. In
this case, we would opt for the conventional in order to keep the final product
from being cost-prohibitive for us, the maker, and for you, our botanical perfume-loving friends. (Incidentally, synthetic rose fragrance oil is about $12 per ounce, so this comparison gives you a fairly good idea of why artisanal botanical perfumes carry a higher price tag than synthetic fragrances.)
Where we do splurge is with our absolutes, which are extracted using a hexane-free solvent and are certified organic. From an aromatherapy standpoint, we would never use an absolute extracted using hexane, so we chose early on to follow those same principles with our perfumes. This may limit our palette slightly, but we feel the purity is in line with our belief in using only naturally derived ingredients (hence our name, “Press & Still”).
Lastly, if an organic essential oil is out of stock or inferior in scent quality, we'll reach for a wildcrafted alternative, and then for conventional. Ultimately, very few oils and extracts in our current collection are grown conventionally. Please email us for specifics at hello@pressandstill.com.